This invention relates to attachment arrangements for U-shaped stabilizer bars in motor vehicles and, more particularly, to a coupling for an articulated fastening coupling for such arms.
U-shaped stabilizer bars are generally joined to the chassis of a vehicle by way of rubber elastic bearings supporting the central portion, which is oriented more or less transverse to the lengthwise direction of the vehicle, while the arms of the stabilizer, which extend more or less lengthwise of the vehicle, have a jointed connection with the wheel-steering links or alternatively with the wheel mounts themselves. In principle, however, there are known arrangements, particularly in combination with rigid axles, in which the stabilizer arms are jointed to the chassis, while the central portion of the U-shaped stabilizer bar is connected to the steering links or to the axle.
In general, the jointed connection of the stabilizer arms is effected through coupling rods which are arranged to compensate for the unequal travels of the steering links on the one hand and of the stabilizer arms on the other hand, resulting from unlike suspension kinematics.
These differences in travel are especially great in the case of a transverse link axle or a spring leg/transverse link axle such as is conventional in modern front-wheel-drive vehicles. In such arrangements, the stabilizer arms are supported about an axis of rotation extending transverse to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, while the transverse links, and hence also the points of action of their coupling rods, are supported about an axis extending more or less lengthwise of the vehicle.
To compensate for the differences in travel that occur, therefore, the coupling rods are commonly supported from both the stabilizer arm and the steering link and/or the chassis by rubber elastic elements. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,027,577 and German Utility Design No. 6,801,096.
Instead of using coupling rods and joints, however, it is also common practice, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,215, to attach the stabilizer arms of a U-shaped stabilizer, which extend generally lengthwise of the vehicle, directly and relatively rigidly to the steering links by embedding them in prestressed rubber blocks of comparatively large volume and to suspend the central portion, which extends transverse to the lengthwise direction of the vehicle, from spaced coupling-rod-like attachment members which are attached by rubber elements to the vehicle chassis and are spherically movable therein.